


The Exorcism of Koo Junhoe

by junwtfhoe



Series: ghost!au - ikon [1]
Category: iKON (Korea Band)
Genre: Annoying Hanbin, Crack, Fluff, Ghost Hunter Donghyuk, Ghost Jinhwan, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Innocent Jiwon, Jinwhan Is Tall, M/M, Multi, Twin Monsters Exorcists, junhoe is dumb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 15:11:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14896904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junwtfhoe/pseuds/junwtfhoe
Summary: Life is already hard as it is, but a certain ghost midget makes it harder for our resident dummy.





	The Exorcism of Koo Junhoe

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm bad at summarising. I'm going to keep that summary like that until I think of a better summary. And really I wrote this instead of sleeping. This fic was inspired by my friend's tweet titled "The Exorcism of Koo Junhoe", featuring the pictures of Junhoe during the filming of the lip sync scenes. I don't know why I make everything become Junhwan, I must really have a thing for that ship. I might be bad at summarising but I'm good at talking a damn lot. Thank you for making the decision to read this fic, I hope you enjoy it.

Ah, Friday. The start of the weekend, the time for everybody young to go and probably spend their time out drinking and clubbing.

Not for Junhoe though.

That night he has to work overtime. It ables him to only check out of the office after the clock hits 10 pm. Being the responsible adult he is, he proceeds to walk home from the office building. He is tired. Why would he spend more time tiring himself dancing and drinking until dawn? The better way to spend his time in the weekends after being cooped up in an office cubicle for 9 hours everyday is in his little sanctuary, his apartment. It takes him only a short time, the office building is only about 11 blocks away from his apartment complex.

There is an air of calmness where Junhoe walks. Must have been the magic of 10 pm to the ever-bustling city. And that means everybody is snuggled up inside their apartments and the only people left outside are only him and the burglars, murderers and etcetera etcetera. Junhoe shudders at the thought of him being left alone outside with the criminals. He pulls his trench coat tighter around him as if it were able to protect him.

From afar he had seen a group of students, still wearing their uniforms. Looking at them makes him feel that he misses highschool. No, not the school itself but the carefreeness of a student, of a teenager, his highschool friends. Now that he is a working young adult, he wishes that he had treasured his highschool years more.

As they neared him, he clearly sees that the students are rowdy and boisterous. Trying to sound mature while talking to each other, slipping a number of curse words in each speech.

"Hey! That was crazy!" a boy shouts, swinging his arm over another's shoulder. "I didn't think that spirit would fucking show up!"

That spirit. The popular spirit. Rumour has it, in the process of building the apartment complex 5 years ago, there was a construction worker who had jumped from the 16th floor of the building because of the grief caused by the killing of his wife and unborn daughter by the loansharks whom he had countless of debts with. It is said that every midnight, the spirit will be seen falling from the 16th floor of the apartment building, or at least that is what Junhoe knows about the history of the spirit. Junhoe, however, does not care about the story or the spirit.

In fact he sees spirits everyday.

The thing is... Junhoe can see spirits or ghosts or whatever you call it. He has the ability since he was born and as he gets older, the ability gets stronger. Compared to the occasional spirits he could see when he was a child, he now could see spirits anytime and anywhere. Sometimes he couldn't even differentiate the spirits from humans, that's just how frequent he sees them.

Junhoe glances to the students and his eyes widen when he sees a large ouija board with one of the students.

"I didn't think the spirit would be so small," a girl sulks, expressing her disappointment by sagging down her shoulders. "Even I'm taller than it."

At this moment, Junhoe stops on his track. He is puzzled. He has never heard of a small spirit wandering around the area. Will another ghost come to bug him tonight? Shaking that thought off, he continues to walk and decides to ignore the uneasy feeling that the student's words caused him.

Nearly every night, a ghost comes to interrupt Junhoe's peace. Be it that construction worker old man, that weird female ghost, or any ghost who visits Junhoe, no ghost has ever been welcome in his apartment. He always finds a way to chase the spirits out, usually either by talking to the spirits or forcefully casting them out by throwing salt at them.

Junhoe looks around, being near to the apartment building makes him nervous. Why? Within a 10 meter or less radius, there will always be a stray spirit who attempts to attach themselves to him and somehow forcefully makes him bring them to his apartment complex. These spirits know that Junhoe notices them. Its partially his own fault because he always ends up noticing the ghosts, not realising that they are ghosts. The attention they get from him makes them feel as if he was a person they would be welcome with, that's why they follow him.

Junhoe on the other hand, he avoids bringing them inside. It's not like Junhoe is scared of them, he has seen their kind since he was a child so he basically is already used to seeing them. He however is annoyed by them. Spirits are manifestations of the unresolved emotions in their previous lives, that's what makes them annoying. Imagine having somebody who cries 24/7 in your house. Isn't that just heartbreaking? Or somebody who constantly tries to make you their lover because they literally died single. That is clearly annoying, don't you think?

Junhoe sees these, experiences these nearly most of the time and he feels annoyed by the wide range of emotions the visiting spirits bring. It is such a contrast to his seemingly unemotional demeanor, he’s just bad with emotional stuff.

Junhoe shakes his head, an expression of distaste appearing on his face. He exhales and rests his hands on his waist and looks upwards to the hazy night sky. He is frustrated. He was already annoyed by the existing spirits and he refuses to encounter another new spirit that clearly does not know his way with their kind. For cautionary purposes, he looks around and scrutinises every part of the area for suspicious entities. The purpose Junhoe of looking around was unfulfilled though, instead he sees a figure in red in the middle of the road. Junhoe might be unbothered with most of the things in his life but who would not be concerned seeing a teenage boy, with a hand inside the pocket of his jeans acting as if he was in a fashion shoot standing in the middle of the road.

“Kid!” he shouts to the teen, “You could get run over! Get off the road, do you want to die?!”

The teen slowly turns his head towards Junhoe. He stares blankly at Junhoe. Every extra second spent trying to knock some sense into the teen’s head is now making Junhoe jittery because anytime now a spirit could prance up unto him and as a result, he will have to waste more salt.

“I’m not going anywhere as long as you are there!” Junhoe shouts in frustration and waves his hand in towards the other side of the road, gesturing the teen to go away. “And please I need to get home! Help me out here!”

Finally, the teen stops staring at Junhoe and turns away from him as he walks over to the other side of the road and onto the less injurious sidewalk. He turns to face Junhoe and as if to prove Junhoe’s concern was relevant, a car drives past the both of them, momentarily cutting of their lines of vision of the other. Junhoe glances at the car briefly then returns his attention to the teen.

They were staring at each other when the teen bows deeply, mildly shocking Junhoe because the action was unexpected. He becomes awkward. Junhoe does not know what to do or how to act towards the teen’s action. He plays it cool by brushing it off and dismissing the teen with a half-smile and a slight wave. He was rapid to exit the open area and into the apartment complex, finally feeling relieved that he can go home and get some sleep.

Little did he know, a surprise was waiting for him.

 

∞

 

Junhoe arrives on the 14th floor, his floor. Singing to a random song, he walks to his front door and glances at the door next to his. He wonders if his neighbour, his friend, and the bane of his existence all in one person was still up. Cupping his ear for better hearing, he scoots closer to the door next to his. His expression sours when he hears the door thumping along with a string of shameless moans from behind it. It must be one of those nights. He begins to regret his decision more as the obscenity loudens. Junhoe jumps back and rapidly punches in the passcode to open his door.

“This is why I can’t have nice things!” Junhoe shouts, annoyed by the blooming romance his two neighbours were having. “Don’t fuck my peace up please.”

His shout is replied by a stupid sounding laugh that could only be Kim Hanbin’s. Throwing one last look of irritation towards Hanbin’s front door, Junhoe enters his apartment and takes off his shoes. Junhoe heaves a sigh of relief in finally reaching home. He reaches for a remote to turn the air conditioner on then plops down onto the couch, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Hey, welcome home.” A voice from the far end of the couch says.

_What the fuck? I, uh, live alone?_

Junhoe promptly gets up and adopts a fighting stance, something he has learned from his jiujitsu days in university. The stance breaks when he sees a teen – the teen he saw in the middle of the road – sitting crossleggedly on the couch and directly facing him from across where Junhoe was previously sitting.

“Hi?” the teen says, raising his hand up to greet Junhoe. “I come in peace, human.”

“How did you get here?” Junhoe asks the teen, pointing at him. He stares and scans the teen from top to toe. A sudden realisation dawns unto him when he senses the slight translucency of the teen’s body. His shocked eyes dulls and his lips purses as he says, “You’re a ghost.”

“Well, yes. I am. I'm not going to deny that.” The ghost nods. He folds his hands together in a motion that reminds Junhoe of one of his professors in university when he was going to start a lecture. “I am a ghost but I am also known as phantom, or soul, or specter, or poltergeist, or spirit, or wraith, or apparition, or entity... but I prefer Jinhwan.”

“Did you just tell me your name in such an unnecessary way?”

“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” People and ghosts are equally intimidated by Junhoe's expressionless face because it makes him look fierce and deadly. This ghost though, he speaks with such innocence yet the sentence he uses shows his fearlessness towards Junhoe.

Junhoe runs his hand through his hair and sighs. He furrows his brows towards this Jinhwan ghost and hastily walks to his kitchen. Opening the built in storage cabinet above the kitchen sink, he rummages through it and lets out a small _Yes!_ when he finds a large jar filled with cheap salt. Jinhwan's eyes follow Junhoe's every action throughout his small quest for salt and he sighs.

Ready to waste some salt, Junhoe opens the jar and grabs a handful. Legs open, he once again adopts a fighting stance but this time with salt in his fist and the salt jar in his arm.

“That,” Jinhwan gets up and stretches. He only continues once he stops stretching. He shrugs as he says, “It won’t work on me. Don’t believe me? Try it then.”

Gritting his teeth, Junhoe throws his handful of salt towards Jinhwan only for it to end up scattering across the floor of his living room. This was definitely not the result that Junhoe was hoping for, usually the spirits that follow him home would already be disappearing by the time he brings the salt jar out. Jinhwan, however, was still very much visible in his living room.

Junhoe sighs, for the nth time today and walks back to his kitchen to set the salt down. He thinks _If I can’t chase this ghost out with salt, I’ll just try talking to him. Maybe he’ll understand and go away._ He goes back to the living room and starts bluntly, “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing.” Jinhwan says and casually shakes his head. Raising his hands slightly, he looks down and begins to fiddle with the sleeves of his red hoodie. “You talked and smiled to me earlier. I felt that you’re a human that I could trust so I followed you. Sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”

The response of the petite spirit looks innocent and endearing. Almost. Junhoe is slightly taken off guard by his response but he does not let it make him too lenient towards Jinhwan who is supposed to be another nuisance.

“Are you materialising yourself now?” Junhoe asks the ghost. From his experience of dealing with ghosts, he knows how tiring it is for a ghost or a spirit to make themselves be seen to the living, that’s why most of them choose to only materialise themselves occasionally. A ghost might be a ghost but Junhoe, as someone who understands slightly pities them for this. “You can stop doing that. It’s okay, I can see your kind.”

Listening to Junhoe’s words, Jinhwan looks at Junhoe. “Really?”

“Yeah. Aren’t you tired?” Junhoe asks.

“A little.” Jinhwan replies. “I’ve been materialising my whole body for 30 whole minutes now.”

Listening that Jinhwan has materialised himself for half an hour shocks Junhoe. The ordinary ghost could only materialise themselves for up to 15 minutes at the longest. This ghost however, he was definitely more than ordinary.

“Okay, do you still see me?” Jinhwan asks, pointing at himself.

“Yes.” Junhoe bluntly answers. “I'm sorry but ghosts aren’t welcome in my household.”

Jinhwan nods towards the window. “Then how do you explain her? 

From outside the window, a female ghost clad in school uniform is glaring strongly at the both of them. “Ignore her.” Junhoe then shouts at the ghost, “Go away before I throw salt at you!”

This female ghost, who constantly tries to propose Junhoe into being her boyfriend, mouths _I hate you_ and shows a rude gesture then disappears. Junhoe curses under his breath and turns to Jinhwan. “But seriously, what do you want from me?”

“Well if you put it like that,” Jinhwan says, “I’ll say care then. 

Junhoe just looks at him. “Like I said, you smiled at me.” He then sits down on the couch and continues. “You even told me to get off the road. It’s been such a long time since people care enough to talk or even look at me. I’ve wandered to nearly every road in the country an-”

Junhoe cuts Jinhwan off, “Wait. So you stand in the middle of nearly every road in the country? Are you on ghost drugs or what?”

“I am a wandering spirit.” Jinhwan replies, “As long I’m still in this world I’ll just wander around until I have a place to settle down. So far, I haven’t and it was only until you called out to me.”

The ghost was smiling, his teeth fully exposed. Who would resist such a dazzling smile, eventhough it is from an undead being. At that moment, Junhoe is frozen and he continues to stare at Jinhwan, unable to bring himself to say anything. Among the thousands of smiles he has seen in his life, this smile was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

“Let me stay with you.” Jinhwan’s voice breaks the silence. “I’m tired of wandering so let me stay with you.”

And once again silence fills the apartment. All they could hear was the faint hum of the air conditioner. If Jinhwan was a human, Junhoe would very much let him stay with him but he, Jinhwan, is obviously a ghost so his answer is an absolute no.

“But– ”

“Kid,” Junhoe starts firmly. “My life is already busy. I don’t have time to deal with your ghostly shenanigans and I don’t want to involve myself in your past life. The last time I let a ghost stay inside with me for more than a day, I ended up becoming their private detective. That’s exhausting. I appreciate it if you quietly exit my house.”

“Fine then. But I’m not a kid,” the ghost gets up from the couch. “I’m a perfectly mature 25 year-old adult.”

“Lies.”

“This won’t be the last that you see of me, Koo Junhoe.” Jinhwan exits the house by floating through the front door of Junhoe’s apartment.

Junhoe tilts his head, he does not remember telling Jinhwan his name. _At least he's out of my hair_ he thinks. Letting out a sigh of relief, Junhoe walks to his bedroom. He takes a brief shower and straight away tucks himself to bed after wearing a set of fresh T-shirt and shorts. He falls asleep right away due to today’s hecticness. He forgets about the scattered granules of salt in his living room.

 

∞

 

Junhoe spends his weekend quietly, watching his favourite vintage romance movies all over again. He also receives visits from Hanbin and Jiwon, his two over-amorous neighbours, who makes sure that Junhoe was still alive despite his staple diet of instant noodles. The weekend passes and it was time to work again. Along Junhoe’s working days, Jinhwan appears to him unexpectedly and for every day of the week, Jinhwan’s appearance is none the same.

On Monday, Jinhwan appears to Junhoe in his office cubicle and scares the wits out of him. He had not expected Jinhwan to know where he works but apparently ghosts have their own ways of gaining information of others. Throughout the whole day, Jinhwan follows him everywhere and at random times he suddenly thinks that Jinhwan is cute. When they get home, Junhoe once again chases Jinhwan out of his apartment with his salt-jutsu. Jinhwan exits Junhoe’s house, however it is not because he feels threatened but he feels annoyed by Junhoe’s flying handfuls of salt.

Jinhwan appears to Junhoe when he was out with his two co-workers to get lunch on Tuesday. While they were ordering food, Junhoe had a hard time keeping a straight face because Jinhwan was repeatedly popping out from left to right just behind the cashier, as if he were playing peekaboo with Junhoe. When they were finally seated, Jinhwan sat facing Junhoe. With his chin rested on his palms he keeps staring at Junhoe as Junhoe eats. It took Junhoe all his self-control to not whack Jinhwan in the face for making him feel awkward with his stares.

By Wednesday, Junhoe gives up on trying to salt Jinhwan. He moans over the cleaning he has to do in the morning everytime he fails a chasing out ritual on Jinhwan. And so, he gives up due to his never-ending failures. Jinhwan on the other hand, is having the time of his life with harassing Junhoe through his sudden appearances. Junhoe might have the ability to see ghosts but Jinhwan manages to scare the living soul out of Junhoe. Every. Damn. Time.

Jinhwan does not appear to Junhoe on Thursday. The absence of the sensitive little ghost bothers Junhoe. Though the time they had spent together was short and chaotic, he was used to Jinhwan’s appearance and deep inside, he knows he was expecting for Jinhwan to pop out of the wall of his cubicle. The whole day he awaits for the ghost to conjure himself up before him but he never did. Hopeful, Junhoe had his salt jar with him as he sits on the couch and waits for Jinhwan to appear. In the end Junhoe dozes off, never seeing Jinhwan.

Junhoe reminds himself to not be too hopeful when Friday finally comes. He has to remind himself that Jinhwan was a ghost and not something to be awaited for everyday. Jinhwan however appeared to Junhoe early in the morning, before he even gets ready for work. This time he uses no element of surprise, yet he wakes Junhoe up gently and shoves a half-asleep Junhoe to the bathroom. For the rest of the day Junhoe tries to process the fact that he was actually enjoying his time with Jinhwan.

 

∞

 

The apartment is filled with the sounds of Junhoe's simmering instant noodles. He has eaten takeout for dinner but he couldn't help it, he was hungry again. Jinhwan mindlessly floats around Junhoe, aiding him in watching the instant noodles.

"Jinhwan." Junhoe averts his attention from the pot and calls out to the ghost. "Okay."

"What 'okay'?"

"I'll let you stay." Hearing this, the corners of Jinhwan's mouth quirks up. Junhoe shrugs, "You might not be as bad as other ghosts."

"Thank you!" Jinhwan folds his hands together and smiles.

Junhoe could only reply to him with his signature half-smile. He then returns his attention to the pot and proceeds to rip the seasoning packets open, dumping the contents into the pot.

"Oh and you should call me hyung." Jinhwan mumbles, still audible enough for Junhoe to listen over the simmering of his instant noodles. "I'm older than you by 3 years. Don't ask me how I know this, I have my ways."

"Fine then, Jinhwan."

"Jinhwan-hyung!" the ghost corrects him, only to gain laughter from the human.

They spend the rest of the night on the couch, talking, forgetting Junhoe's now empty pot. Believe it or not, Junhoe has no desire whatsoever to bring the salt jar and sprinkle it over Jinhwan anymore. He enjoys the companion of the ghost and he even jokes with him.

"They called me with that ouija board!" Jinhwan explains frustratedly. "Those kids messed up some words and they ended up calling me."

"Hyung." Junhoe interrupts.

"Yes?" Jinhwan replies, finally satistfied that Junhoe calls him hyung. "What is it?"

"There's an extra room in my apartment. I figured that ghosts will need a place to haunt and I gladly let you haunt that room."

Hearing this, Jinhwan laughs. He looks at Junhoe and once again says, "Thank you."

Junhoe waves this off and gets up to wash the pot. Truly this was the start of something fresh in Junhoe's life. Never even once in his life he had let a ghost stay with him for so long, they had never made him feel at ease and they had always annoyed him so much.

But Jinhwan?

He enjoyed his companion. Junhoe shakes his head and laughs at the thought of this, of enjoying the companion of a ghost.

"Why are you laughing?" Jinhwan asks, a puzzled expression appearing on his face.

"Nothing hyung," Junhoe says, supressing his laugh.

Junhoe looks at Jinhwan and smiles.

Maybe having a ghost around isn't so bad after all.


End file.
